Men’s Health Feature Pages: “Fill the Positive Space with Originality”
Robert Festino was the creative director of Men’s Health for a little over two and a half years, from February 2011-November 2013. Using his diverse background from Fortune, Bon Appetit, ESPN, and Entertainment Weekly, he built on and expanded Men’s Health‘s rich tradition of brilliant art direction and engaging graphics and imagery. Festino describes his approach to feature design at Men’s Health as “putting service 100% forward while building pages that are clean and organized.” One of the trademarks he brought to the design was “finding the potential for air, or white space, even in a dense book that is filled with service.” The pages sparkle, due in large part to Festino’s design philosophy, which is to “encourage art directors to think fresh and openly and to fill the positive space with originality.”
In 2013 Festino led a redesign of Men’s Health, which was chronicled by the Society of Publication Designers.
Here are 10 favorite feature story opening page designs created by Festino and his team at Men’s Health. See more of Festino’s work here.
(Above): Designer: Mike Schnaidt, illustrator: Tavis Coburn, photo editor: Jeanne Graves, photographer: Brian Finke.
Designer: Robert Festino, photo editor: Jeanne Graves, photographer: Ture Lillegraven.
Designers: Mike Schnaidt, Robert Festino, illustration: James Taylor Gray.
Designer: Mike Schnaidt, photo editor: Jeanne Graves, photographer: Charles Masters.
Designer: Mike Schnaidt, photo editor: Jeanne Graves, photographer: Ture Lillegraven.
Designers: Mike Schnaidt, Robert Festino, photo editor: Don Kinsella, photographer: Jamie Chung.
Designer: Robert Festino, photo editors: Brenda Millis, Jeanne Graves, photographer: Mary Ellen Mark.
Designers: Mike Schnaidt, Robert Festino, photo editor: Don Kinsella, photographer: Jamie Chung.
Designer: Claudia De Almeida.
Art director: Tom O’Quinn, designer: Robert Festino, illustration: Rami Niemi.
See more examples of Robert Festino’s work at Men’s Health here.
Related stories:
10 Great Entertainment Weekly Covers Designed by Kory Kennedy
The New Republic: A Thought Leader of Cover Design
The Business of Music: Billboard Magazine Covers
